


The Winchester Anomaly

by Disasteriffic_Kaz



Category: Primeval, Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Hurt Sam, Hurt/Comfort, hurt Connor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 20:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1482190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disasteriffic_Kaz/pseuds/Disasteriffic_Kaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Professor Cutter calls the boys back to England when more than dinosaurs escape an anomaly and knows this is something he needs the Winchesters for again. season 2 Supernatural/season 3 Primeval Xover</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: This story leads off a prompt I wrote as a reward for the Reader's Special. I had so much fun mixing these two fandoms I knew I'd have to come back to it eventually and write another. You can read the original meeting of the Winchesters with the ARC crew here as I haven't loaded those on to AO3 yet:  
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8290201/6/Reader-s-Special-2nd-edition-1-shot-Reward-Fics
> 
>  
> 
> Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678 :D– Friend and Muse's co-conspirator.
> 
> Beta's Note: Just feel I must chime in here and say that I never once watched the show Primeval, but I LOVED the previous one-shot crossover which completely explained any background you might need to know. And from what I've read so far of this one, it promises to be EPIC. You don't even have to know that it's another TV show...just think of them as new characters doing a unique job of their own! But I DO highly recommend reading the previous one-shot first, which is linked in the A/N. Enjoy!
> 
> **Follow me on Facebook as "Disasteriffic Kaz" for frequent fic updates or just to chat!  
> ~Reviews are Love~

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

**_Chapter 1_ **

Dean watched his brother come slowly down the aging stairs and groaned, trying to push himself higher on the wall. He felt like an idiot for letting the zombie tag him and decided Sam was a good target for his frustration as his little brother stood over him, tucked his phone away, and smiled.

"You think this is funny?" Dean snarled while Sam knelt beside him and rolled his eyes. "I get off this floor…kickin' your ass. Who the hell were you talkin' to on the damn phone while I'm bleedin' out?"

Sam shook his head with a smile. "You're not bleeding out. Don't be a baby." He took his big brother's shoulder and pulled him forward enough to pull his jacket up and look at his back. "Believe it or not, that was Professor Cutter."

Dean jerked and stared at him. "Wait, Professor 'I chase dinosaurs through time' Cutter?"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, that one." Satisfied that his brother's wound wasn't, in fact, life threatening, he pulled Dean's arm over his shoulders and dragged him to his feet. "They've got a little problem over there he thinks is our kind of thing - well, and his kind of thing. Both our things together. Wait, that just sounds wrong."

Dean snorted a laugh. "You not makin' sense 'cause I lost too much blood, or are you just not makin' sense in general?" he asked wearily and chuckled as they stepped out onto the porch. "We are not goin' to friggin' England again. Nuh-uh."

Sam laughed as he helped him down the stairs and saved the argument for later while he recalled the astonishing events of their last meeting with Professor Nick Cutter and his team. He and Dean had gone to England after a cursed statue for Bobby, which Dean was still pissed about. The flight home had somehow managed to be worse than the flight out, and he wasn't sure he could get Dean on the plane again. Sam smirked slightly; the opportunity for his brother to irritate the so-uptight Becker about his guns again did sound like fun if he could just talk him into it.

"You just wanna…geek out with the little guy again. What was his name?" Dean looked over at his brother while Sam opened the passenger door of the Impala and gave him a lopsided smile.

"Connor, like you don't remember." Sam rolled his eyes, chuckling as he helped Dean into the seat. "You're just disappointed the hot blonde was into him and not you."

"Ooh, Abby." Dean whistled softly and tried to get comfortable as the door closed. He grinned when Sam got in the car. "Wouldn't mind looking at her again, even if she does prefer you geeks."

" _Her_ name you remember." Sam shook his head and laughed as he pulled out onto the street. "You are a hopeless hound, Dean."

Dean chuckled and turned slightly in the seat to take pressure off his wounded back. "You see that waitress I made time with last week, dude? Hopeless, my shiny white ass." He dropped his head back onto the seat while Sam laughed and tried to remember again how much he hated flying.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

"Tell me again why I'm on this deathtrap?" Dean growled over at his brother and did his best not to look around the cabin as the plane bounced through yet another patch of turbulence.

"Because the professor asked for our help and we owe him." Sam rolled his eyes fondly and knew his brother's mind was over focused on the flight because he got an arm over his shoulders on the back of the seat without being hurt for it.

"Pretty sure _we_ saved _their_ asses," Dean said angrily and slammed his eyes closed when the plane rolled.

Sam chuckled and settled his arm over his brother's shaking shoulders. "They helped save me from the Triassic and patched me up after, Dean."

Dean didn't bother answering. He focused instead on his death grip on the arms of the seat and, though he'd never admit it, the comforting weight of his brother's arm over his shoulders. He'd been hunched in the seat so long, the wound in his back was throbbing all over again, and he wished he hadn't been so stubborn when Sam had tried to get him to wait a few days for his back to heal. He had seventeen stitches on his lower back thanks to the zombie, and he felt every damn one of them just then.

"Just breathe, Dean. Take it easy," Sam tried to soothe him. Teasing Dean about his fear of flying was only funny for the first hour or so; after that, it just became cruel. Sam was concerned about him, wishing he could have convinced Dean to take a few days rather than fly wounded, but he wouldn't hear of it once he'd agreed to it. Sam settled in for the long haul.

Dean didn't take a full breath again until the plane touched down at Heathrow Airport in London. He strode hurriedly off the thing into the airport and didn't register at first that his name was being called.

"Dean." Sam smirked at his brother's pale face and turned him. "They're here." He waved as Connor Temple walked toward them with a huge grin, the short, blonde and adorable Abby Maitland at his side with the tall, uniformed Becker behind them. "Hi!"

"Dean, mate. You look like hell." Becker ginned as Dean looked at him very unhappily.

"Rough flight, army boy," Dean groaned and straightened, unwilling to look weak in front of the man who insisted on grinning at him. He had a sudden urge to blacken one of Becker's far too amused blue eyes and mess up that damn army, short hair of his.

Connor pulled on Sam's sleeve and tugged the overtall man down to his height. "Sam…he alright? He looks a bit…"

"Dean's really not happy about flying…ever," Sam said with a smile. "It's pretty much the only time he looks like a scared twelve-year-old."

Abby chuckled softly and took Sam's other hand in a warm grip. "Still hasn't gotten over that?" She looked over at Sam's brother with a smirk. "I seem to remember him saying 'never again' the last time you two were here."

Sam laughed softly and nodded. "Took all my skills to irritate him onto the plane and that's saying something."

"Not a newsflash for anyone that you're a pain in the ass, Sam." Dean stepped in suddenly and grinned. "Hey, Abs. Connor." He grabbed Abby up and hugged her, then set her down while she laughed next to Connor. "You lookin' after her, shorty?"

"Oi! I'm not short," Connor protested and rolled his eyes as Sam, Dean, and Becker all took a step closer to look down at him. "I'm five foot nine, thanks, mates. You're all gargantuan freaks of bloody nature."

Sam laughed and clapped him on the back hard enough to knock him forward a step. "So, are you gonna to tell us exactly what's been going on?"

"The professor will." Becker smiled and then frowned, watching Sam stop his brother from picking up his own bag and grabbing it for him. "You alright?"

"He took a hit in the back less than two days ago and was too stubborn to heal up before coming." Sam rolled his eyes when Dean snarled at him. "The stitches are healing. He'll be fine; just grumpy."

"Can we please go somewhere with food before I make myself an only child?" Dean slapped Becker's shoulder. "Come on. Let the geeks geek."

"The professor's waiting on us," Becker said in his smooth voice, blue eyes crinkling as he pulled Dean's bag from Sam and nodded. "We have a car waiting, but I'm sure we can find something suitably greasy at the ARC."

"Meat pies?" Dean asked and grinned at the chorus of chuckles as he rubbed his hands together. "Only reason I agreed to get on that flying tuna can. It's meat AND it's pie. Oh, yeah, baby."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-** _

The Anomaly Research Center was every bit as impressive as the Winchesters remembered as their nondescript SUV pulled into the underground parking lot and out of the sun. Sam smiled as they were led into the operations center of the ARC and he got his second look at Connor's Anomaly Detector.

"You've done some work on it." Sam stepped up to look at all the screens while Connor beamed with pride beside him. Multiple screens displayed London, various parts of the UK, and the whole of the country with detection grids overlaid, graphs, and readings. "This is impressive."

"Oi, this is…cutting edge stuff now, mate." Connor ran a loving hand along the side of one of the screens.

Sam chuckled. "It was cutting edge before."

"Dean! Sam!" Professor Nick Cutter strode down the ramp from the floor above and grinned at the two men, noting once more how tall they seemed to breed them in America. His hair was still the same unruly, dirty blonde and his eyes crinkled with his smile. "Are ye' 'ungry yet, Dean or is your belly still playin' merry 'ell with ye?"

Dean snorted, sorting through the professor's thick accent. "Starving. Becker promised me meat pies."

"Aye, best not to disappoint ye then. Come on." Nick clapped a hand to his shoulder. "We can eat and talk."

Dean could tell the tension level in the ARC was higher than normal. He could see it in the shoulders and faces of everyone they passed as they walked. Even in the canteen, though they laughed and joked as they ate, that tension was still there. He glanced at Sam, got a nod, and leaned back from his empty plate. "Ok, professor." Dean rubbed his tummy happily. "Now that you've fed us, how about you tell us what's got you all so nervous?"

"Right. Perceptive." Professor Cutter smiled. "Abby, would ye' get that file from my desk? And don't bother Sarah! She's busy!"

Abby chuckled and strode off, shaking her head. "Yes, professor."

"We've an anomaly, which is nothin' new o' course. We know something's come through, but we haven't a clue what." Cutter shrugged. "Whatever it is, it's vicious."

Connor gave a light shudder. "We've seen people, you know, dino lunch buffet?" He smirked but it was a weak attempt at humor. "This is so far past that."

"What makes you think it's our sort of thing?" Sam leaned on the table with a frown. "Dinosaurs eat people, generally." He knew, because he often kept in touch with Connor via email, and he had a fair idea now of the sort of things they faced. It had given him all new respect for people who didn't seem all that imposing to begin with but could face down history's worst predators and win every time. "Something has to be different about these kills."

"They're not just bein' used for chew toys, yeah?" Connor swallowed. "Somethin's taking pieces out of them and draining them."

"It's drinking their blood," Nick Cutter clarified. "Well, no' including the copious amounts that are left decorating each scene. It's a sloppy eater, whatever it is."

Sam met his brother's eyes. He raised a brow, Dean shrugged in return, and Sam nodded. "Are you sure it's a dinosaur doing the killing and not some sort of…I don't know…proto-human or whatever?"

"Definitely a dinosaur," Connor said surely. "It leaves tracks in the blood."

"Best guess from the tracks and the size of them is it's some sort of raptor." Cutter rolled his eyes. "As if they aren't deadly enough all on their own. We've had first 'and experience more than once."

"Here." Abby returned and set a file folder on the table between the Winchesters. "You can 'ave a look at the pictures. I'm gonna go check on Rex. Definitely don't need to see those again."

Dean flipped the file open and flipped through the gory pictures, passing each to Sam as he went. "You see that?"

Sam nodded, finger resting on a pattern of teeth in one man's shoulder…what was left of his shoulder. "And here." He tapped another of the pictures, pushing the glossy image toward Dean. "It's the same but…different. Different jaw structure." Sam muttered as he studied the wounds and carefully tried not to think about them in terms of people; there just wasn't a whole lot of them left. "Arching teeth…"

"Two rows. Right there." Dean glanced up and caught matching smirks on Connor and the professor's faces. "What?"

"They sound like us." Connor chuckled.

Professor Cutter nodded. "I take it ye' think ye' know what we're dealin' with?"

"It's…" Sam leaned back and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I never considered really that things like this even existed before people, you know?"

"Things like wha'?" Connor asked curiously.

"Well, if I didn't know better…I'd say these were vampire kills." Sam shrugged and looked over at his brother.

Dean took one of the photos and pushed it over to the other men. "See this bite?" His finger ran along a distinctive impression of teeth. "That looks like the bite radius of a vampire."

"Really?" Connor frowned and looked. "I always thought, well, fangs, yeah?" He smirked. "Like Dracula."

Sam shook his head. "Vampires - well, human vampires anyway - have an entire row of retractable, razor sharp fangs that descend over their human teeth when they feed." He nodded to the photos. "That's what that looks like but with a different shaped mouth."

"This is kinda freaky." Dean shook his head and leaned back. "Vampire dinosaurs? Damn, our lives are weird, dude."

"Could be something else," Sam said but he was fairly sure they were right.

"One way to find out." Dean clapped his hands together and grinned. "Let's go hunt us a blood-suckin' Godzilla."

Professor Cutter laughed and stood. "Becker's been gettin' everythin' ready for us. The anomaly seems to be fairly stable. Doesn'a show signs of closing anytime soon. Connor?"

"Right, no. Still suckin' up any metal that gets near it." Connor smirked. "Tha's a good sign." He frowned. "Or a bad one, I guess, since the dinosaurs can just keep coming through." He sighed. "I'm still workin' on that. I'll figure it out."

"I know you will, Connor. Let's go, eh? Find Abby." Cutter gave the young man a push to the door and gathered together the gruesome pictures as Dean and Sam rose. "Assumin' yer' righ' an' it is a vampire raptor, how do we deal with it?"

"Beheading," Dean said firmly.

"Now, hold on. We need to send it back through, if possible." Cutter raised a hand. "I know you're used to killin' everythin' ye' go after, but this is different. The smallest thing can change the future. Believe me."

Dean looked at him, readying an argument, but something about the odd, lost look on the professor's face stopped him. There was some deep pain there and Dean left it alone. "Well, you can weaken a vampire."

"Dead man's blood," Sam nodded. "The blood of the dead incapacitates them for a short period of time. I don't know if dead human blood would have the same effect on a dinosaur, though."

"We have to somehow get hold of dead dino blood?" Connor asked and his voice rose worriedly. "That could be a bit of a problem."

"We could try human first, but I'd like to have the alternative around just in case." Dean ran through scenarios in his head. "I'm leanin' towards human won't work considering how much this thing chewed on the victims even after they were dead."

"There must be a way to get it." Sam took a breath. "What about the anomaly? We could in and find a dead raptor."

"That…only if we have to." Cutter shook his head and started for the door. "I'll send Becker on a…supply run to the local morgue. We'll try human first."

Dean followed him out into the hall and back toward the underground garage. "Professor, you know we can try and bag this thing alive, but you gotta know things might not play out that way." He moved up alongside him to meet his eyes. "A human vamp is damn dangerous."

"Vampires create more of themselves by infecting others with their blood." Sam told Connor. "All a human vampire has to do is feed you their blood and you turn."

"Bloody hell." Connor said softly. "Gonna grab Abby. See you in a minute." He dashed off down another hall.

Dean fell back alongside his brother and scowled. "Human blood ain't gonna work, is it?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't think so. Some of the damage in those pictures was definitely post-mortem."

"Dammit." Dean growled. "So we got a super-strong, blood-sucking Jurassic Park goin' on out there somewhere AND we're not allowed to kill the damn thing. This is gonna go well."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-** _

Dean knelt in the shadows of an old cannery with Becker beside him, both men holding crossbows with arrows dipped in dead man's blood. He looked back and just saw his brother's head pop up over a wall before vanishing again. Sam had been detailed with keeping Connor, Abby, and the Professor in one piece.

"You sure this thing is still around here?" Dean asked Becker softly.

Becker nodded. "The last body we found was just a block away, and the anomaly's down in the sub-level." He shrugged. "We could go down there, but you already know what I think of that idea, mate."

Dean snorted. Becker had argued, and loudly, sometimes speaking to Cutter and Connor as if they were children, that going into the sub-basement to hunt for something this dangerous was foolhardy. According to him, it was a maze of tunnels and halls, some of which were blocked off and not marked on any blueprint. "May not have a choice if this doesn't work." Dean tapped a finger on his crossbow. "And I gotta tell you, man. My gut says this is gonna go sideways fast."

Becker gave him a grim smile. "Trust me, mate. If I had my way, we'd have bloody shotguns and this thing would never see home again." He rolled his eyes fondly. "But I do see the professor's point. It would be a bit shite to never have existed."

That earned a soft laugh from Dean and then he slapped a hand out to the soldier's arm. He'd heard something from ahead of them. Dean raised the crossbow and sighted along the wall toward the wide door with Becker a tense line beside him. "Get ready to run."

Becker raised a brow and looked over at the American. "You're that sure this isn't going to work?" He got a short nod in response and rolled out his shoulders in preparation. It had been difficult to accept the things the Winchesters had told them the last time they met. The existence of every boogeyman he'd thought nothing but myth had rocked him, even after seeing real live ghosts for himself. Becker was relieved that this time, at least, the supernatural thing coming after them was something he could fight with his own weapons…after a fashion.

Dean tensed when just the nose of the dinosaur peeked out from the door. The thing's nostrils flared in the half-light and he knew it was scenting their presence. He tightened his finger on the trigger of the crossbow and waited. The raptor's head eased further around the door and then there was a loud commotion from behind them. Dean spun with fear choking him as voices rose in panic from where Sam was watching the others.

"DEAN!"

"Sam?" Dean took a few steps toward them and saw a dark shape hurtle across the open space and into where the others were hidden. "Sam!"

"Dean, dammit!" Becker fired his crossbow bolt into the neck of the raptor as it came through the door and leaped toward the man's unprotected back. "Down!" He slammed into Dean and took them both to the floor as the raptor's leap took it over them. Becker was torn from Dean's back when the creature's lethal claws caught in the back of his vest and pulled him away in a tumble.

"No!" Dean shouted and gained his knees. The professor's worries about disrupting the timelines were suddenly worthless to him with his brother's life in danger. He couldn't lose Sam. Losing Dad had been hard enough, but Sam…that would be the loss that broke him. Dean shot a blood-soaked bolt into the raptor's eye as it rose over Becker's prone form. He quickly loaded another bolt, though the blood was obviously having no effect, while the dinosaur put its head back in a roar of pain. Dean's eyes widened as the raptor's jaws opened wide and he saw a second set of wickedly curved fangs descend in front of the already razor-sharp teeth. He aimed into its mouth and fired, lodging his bolt in the back of its throat while the shouting from the back of the cannery suddenly went muffled and then silent.

"SAM!"

_**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-** _

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2_ **

"Connor, stop fidgeting," Abby said softly and elbowed him in the ribs.

Sam smirked and met the professor's amused gaze. "Do they take anything seriously?"

"Oh, food mainly." Cutter rolled his eyes and gave Connor his best glare until the young man smiled and settled back next to Abby.

Sam leaned up over the low wall and saw his brother and Becker twenty yards away and waiting. He dropped back down with a smirk when Dean's head started to turn toward him. He had long since figured out that his brother sometimes had radar where he was concerned. He checked that the bolt in his crossbow was settled firmly and gave a nod when he saw Abby doing the same with hers.

"I still don't see why I couldn't have a crossbow," Connor said and scowled over at Abby.

"Because you can't shoot a tranq gun straight, idiot." Abby rolled her eyes at him and lightly slapped the hand he reached out to it. "Or do I need to remind you?" She raised a brow.

Connor grinned unrepentantly and raised his hands in surrender. "Never gonna forgive me for that are ya?" He'd been terrified at the time, but now the memory of accidently tranquing the diminutive beauty in the back side was just plain funny.

"I'm thinking about it." Abby gave him a repressive glare even as a smile quirked the corner of her mouth.

"You both need to think a little more quietly," Sam told them. He'd glanced over the wall again and saw the moment his brother's and Becker's backs straightened and tensed. "No more talking."

Connor opened his mouth and frowned when Abby's hand landed on top of it before he could speak. He blew out a breath through his nose and nodded, so she eased her hand away.

Sam shook his head fondly. He went still and slowly turned his head. It felt like that moment in a horror movie when you know the hero is about to be jumped. He had heard just the barest scrape of claw over stone from his left…from the direction that was supposed to be barred and safe. He felt it like an itch along his back and knew something was there. Sam spun and brought up the crossbow. "DEAN!" Sam bellowed it, making sure his brother would know they were in danger.

"Connor, get out of the way!" Abby gasped as she saw Sam move and then saw the creature behind him already rushing toward them.

Sam fired his bolt, tipped with dead man's blood into the chest of the raptor as it came and dropped to his knees when it executed an impressive leap up in the air. It didn't seem to even register that it had been wounded. "Dammit!" He pulled out another bolt and then shook his head, dropping it when the raptor landed between them and its tail slammed Connor into the wall. Sam drew his machete and swung for the beast's neck when it turned to come for Connor. He scowled and watched the row of vampire fangs slide into view.

"Professor! Get him back!" Sam stood between the raptor and the others. "Now! Move him!"

Nick Cutter grabbed Connor and, in a rush, tipped the younger man over his shoulders with a grunt. "Abby! Come on!"

Sam backed toward the stairs to cover their retreat while the vampire raptor growled at him. "Hurry!" He heard Dean yelling for him, but there wasn't time to say anything as the massive head darted forward. Sam stabbed toward its eye, trying to make it jerk away, but the raptor twisted its head and caught hold of his left arm instead. Sam kept the howl of pain to himself, clenched his teeth, and stabbed the blade into the hinge of the raptor's jaw. It dropped his arm and Sam took its moment of distraction to run after Abby, Connor, and the professor, trusting Dean to find them as soon as he could.

"Sam?" Abby yelled and pulled in a relieved breath when he came pounding down the stairwell a moment later.

"Go. Go fast." Sam said and put a hand to her shoulder to get her moving. "It's coming." It was taking all his concentration to ignore the burning pain in his arm. He knew now what a shark attack victim felt like, he thought.

Abby jogged down the stairs and easily caught up with Cutter and Connor. "Has he woke? Connor?" She put a gentle hand into Connor's dark hair as his head bounced along Cutter's back.

"He'll be fine, Abby." Cutter said breathlessly and stopped to catch his breath when they reached the bottom. "Sam?"

"Here." Sam passed them and looked at the hall that split in either direction. "Which way is the anomaly?" He nodded when Abby pointed to the left. Sam turned right. "Come on. Gotta find somewhere to hole up." He wanted to take Connor from Cutter. Sam knew he was more than strong enough to carry him, but he was worried the strain of carrying him would make his blood loss all the worse.

Abby went past them and jogged down the hall. "Here! Bring him here!" She desperately wanted a better look at Connor.

Sam went to her and put his head in the door of the room she'd chosen. It was small but only had the one way in. "This'll have to do." He shifted and let the professor go past him with Connor, then Abby, and he shoved the door shut, grimacing as the metal door squealed loudly in the silence. He helped Cutter lower Connor to the floor and Abby was there to pull his head into her lap.

"Connor?" Abby whispered and ran her hands lightly over his face while concern choked her. "He's alive."

"I think he hit his head." Sam knelt and spread knowledgeable fingers around the back of Connor's head into his hair. "Yeah, there's a good-sized lump back here. Not bleeding though. He'll be fine, Abby. I promise. Just keep an eye on him."

"Not letting the idiot out of my sight," Abby said softly and firmly as she bent over Connor's head and started whispering to him.

"Sam." Cutter stood and drew the larger man aside. "Couldn't help but notice yer' leavin' a bit of a trail behind."

Sam shook his head and pulled his wounded arm away. "It'll keep. I need to go back out there."

"What? Sam, no." Cutter took his arm back firmly. "Becker and your brother…"

"Could be dead," Sam finished grimly. "I can't just leave them up there, and you're right - I left a trail in here. Unless I go back out there, the raptor's going to come right for you." He picked Abby's crossbow up from the floor and pressed it into the professor's hands. "Take this. Block the door. We'll come for you once it's safe." He gave Cutter a worried glance. "Professor, you might have to kill it to protect yourselves. Can you do it?"

Nick sighed. "Sam, there're a lot of things I'd be willin' t'do to protect the timeline, but sacrificin' people isn'ae one o' them. I'm no' a monster."

"I know." Sam smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, and then he slipped out the door back into the hall.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Dean knelt over Becker's back and grimaced. "Becker?" Every instinct he had screamed at him to go after his brother, and it took a monumental effort of willpower to ignore that and look to his fallen friend first. "You still alive?" Dean poked carefully at the shredded back of Becker's bullet-proof vest and got a groan.

"Bloody 'ell," Becker moaned and slowly pushed up onto one elbow. "That…was not according to plan." His back sang with pain as he moved and he was grateful for Dean's help as the larger man took most of his weight and got him standing, albeit unsteadily. "Connor? Your brother? Where are the others?"

Dean shook his head. "Second raptor. Think it chased them downstairs."

"Dammit." Becker looked over at the dead raptor with a crossbow bolt protruding from its mouth and quirked a brow, seeing that the head was several feet from its body. "Nice shot. Come on."

Dean slid his machete back into the sheathe, scooped his crossbow from the floor and strode quickly ahead of Becker. They took the corner together and Dean stood for a minute just staring at the spatters of blood on the floor. It led in a trail to the stairs and he swallowed hard as he stooped to pick up Sam's crossbow. "Son of a bitch." He ran for the stairs with Becker at his back. "They're being followed." Dean said softly and pointed down to a three-toed print left in the blood. He bared his teeth and moved swiftly down the stairs. "Dammit." The blood trail reached the bottom and split, following the hall in both directions. Dean looked either way and saw that the vampire raptor had left bloodied prints heading in only one. "Sam went this way. The others'll be that way." Dean pointed to the right.

"How can you possibly know that?" Becker asked in surprise.

"Creature went to the left. That'll be Sam drawing it off." Dean was certain of that. It was just the sort of irritating, self-sacrificing thing his little brother would do. "He's bleeding," he said darkly. "Guarantee that's his blood and he's leading it away to protect them."

"Bloody hell." Becker was torn, needing to see to the safety of his team but not wanting to leave Dean and his brother alone.

"Go find them." Dean gave him a shove to the right. "Odds are Sam left 'em because someone's hurt. I'll find my brother. Go!" He didn't wait to see if Becker listened before he was striding off down the hall.

"Vampire bloody dinosaurs," Becker grumbled unhappily and started down the hall. He watched the trail of blood droplets, cringing inwardly. Sam must have a hell of a wound to be leaving this much lying around. "Professor? Connor? Abby?" Becker stopped at a closed door where the blood trailed under it. "Are you in there?"

"Becker? Hang on!"

Becker blew out a breath in relief hearing Cutter's voice and raised his brows as he listened to the sound of something heavy being shoved away from the door. "Are you alright?" he asked as soon as professor Cutter's face appeared in the open door.

"Abby and I are fine. Connor took a knock to the head," Nick said softly and pulled Becker in. He looked back out into the empty hall and frowned. "Where are Dean and Sam?"

"Dean's gone after him." Becker knelt on the floor beside Abby who was holding Connor's head and shoulders in her lap.

"He hasn't woken up yet," Abby whispered worriedly.

"He'll be fine, Abby," Becker smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder. "His head's too hard to be broken."

Abby smirked at that and nodded. "Yeah. Where are the boys?"

"Getting into trouble." Becker replied darkly and stood. "Let's get you out of here and then I'm going after them. Give him here." He handed Abby his crossbow and took Connor's arms, pulling the young man gently over his shoulders. "Ah, crap," Becker hissed and gritted his teeth with Connor pressing on his sore back. "Lead the way, Abby, and stay close."

Professor Cutter tried not to worry too much, but it was clear as he followed behind Becker that the man had been wounded upstairs. "You sure you're alright to carry him?"

"Yeah." Becker didn't elaborate. "We have to hurry."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

The corridors of the sub-basement all looked the same to Dean. Only Sam's blood allowed him to follow without getting hopelessly lost, and he scowled when he found the third, glistening red hand print at a corner. Sam was clearly trying to make sure Dean could find him. "Dammit, Sammy," Dean growled and turned the corner. He was vibrating with tension, knowing there was at least one more vampire raptor down there after his brother. The raptor's prints unerringly followed Sam's trail, scenting his blood.

"No." Dean breathed as he turned another corner and a soft, golden glow began to emanate from somewhere ahead. "No, no, no." He eased down the hall and stepped into a large room with a sinking feeling. An anomaly glowed in the center of the room, a ball of bright light surrounded by an endlessly spinning kaleidoscope of broken light fragments. The trail of Sam's blood led right to it and vanished. Dean stared and swallowed a lump of fear and anger. Off to the side were two viciously mauled bodies in ARC uniforms, no doubt guards left to keep anything else from escaping out of the anomaly.

"Only you, little brother." Dean rolled his eyes and squared his shoulders. He'd really hoped he would never have to step through another anomaly. The whole experience was just a little too jarring with the knowledge he was stepping across millions of years in the space of a heartbeat. Dean bent and grimly dragged his fingers through a puddle of blood and scrawled a hasty, macabre note into the floor 'went this way' with an arrow pointing to the anomaly.

"Can't believe you're makin' me do this again." Dean stood and took a deep breath, closed his eyes and walked into the anomaly after his brother.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3_ **

Dean felt the ground beneath his feet change from the hard slap of concrete to something softer and opened his eyes as warmth and humidity hit him like a wall and stole his breath away. "Holy…holy crap." He staggered for a moment in surprise and took in the rainforest around him. It was dense; a morass of browns and greens with plants he didn't even recognize that towered over him. The air smelled faintly of sulfur and burning, and, for the second time in his life, Dean wondered when he was. He shook his head and looked down at the ground. The forest floor was well trampled near the anomaly and would have made following a trail impossible if not for the blood.

"Sam, you better be alive when I find you," Dean said softly and started walking along the red trail. "So I can kill you." Every breath felt like it was taking more effort than it should, like the air was thick. The heat had already broken him out in a sweat and it stung painfully as it ran down his back into the healing wounds from the zombie. He resisted the urge to call out for his brother. He was in dinosaur territory now, and while there might only be a few to worry about in their time, here there could be dozens nearby.

Dean checked the bolt in his crossbow and wished he could just pull the gun at his back and kill any creature that crossed his path. Professor Cutter's warning was fresh in his mind, however, and he didn't really want to be responsible for shooting the wrong damn butterfly and wiping out all of human civilization. He snorted softly and wondered when their already strange lives had turned into a science fiction film without him noticing.

"Sam?" Dean called as loudly as he dared. He squeezed between two thick trees that towered high above and found more broken foliage and trampled ground. His face darkened because in that spot, Sam had lain long enough for a small blood pool to form and it frightened him. Dean choked back the fear and moved in his brother's footsteps. Whatever condition Sam was in, he was damn well going to bring him home.

Every strange noise made Dean's nerves jump. Warbles and muffled growls of creatures he couldn't even name filled the rainforest around him, and for the first time in his life, Dean felt like prey. He was a rabbit among the wolves…bloodthirsty, giant wolves. He shook his head and focused. Dean rounded the bole of another immense tree and stared in surprise. A dead raptor lay at the base of the tree. Its neck had been torn out and its stomach gutted messily.

"Huh." Dean glanced around but saw and heard nothing. He knelt next to its head and peeled back the stiff hide of its upper lip. He poked carefully at the gums above the sharp teeth and grinned when he found nothing that shouldn't be there. "Not a Raptovamp. Nice." He hastily pulled the flask from his jacket pocket and unscrewed the cap. He took a healthy swig of the whiskey inside before dumping the rest. He gave it a shake to make sure it was empty and then bent over the torn out throat of the raptor. Dean swallowed as he slicked cooling blood into the flask. When he had it mostly filled, he screwed the cap back on and then pulled the pack of crossbow bolts from his back. He dipped the head of each one into the dead lizard's neck, coating them well before sliding them back and stood with renewed purpose. Now he had a weapon that would take the vampire raptor down.

"Alright, ugly." Dean whispered and found Sam's blood trail again. "Come get some."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Becker grunted when Connor's knee suddenly banged into his stomach, and he staggered to a stop on the stairs. "Oi, Connor. Watch it!"

"Down. Put…pu'me down." Connor woke with a screaming headache, and the sensation of hanging upside down along Becker's back was making him feel dangerously close to throwing up. "Quick!" He swallowed hard as he was swung down to his feet and would have gone to the floor if not for Becker's tight grip on his shoulders.

"Connor?" Abby put a hand to his pale face and waited for him to blink and` look at her. She smiled with relief to have him awake. "Alright now?"

"More or less." Connor said a little breathlessly. "Wha' hit me?" He looked around and didn't fight when Professor Cutter took hold of his head to look in his eyes. "Where's Sam?"

"Vampire velociraptor." Abby smiled ruefully. "Sort of…banged your head into a wall."

"Sam led it away from us." Cutter smiled, deciding Connor didn't look like he was going to fall over at any moment and let go of his head. "And Dean went after him."

"Then where are we goin' exactly?" Connor asked, suddenly incensed. "We're not just leavin' them behind!" He shook his head and grabbed Becker's arms. "Becker, mate. Come on! You're Action Man! We've got to go find them! We owe them!"

"We know that, Connor." Cutter put a hand on his shoulder and kept his own voice calm. "We're not leavin' 'em, but we 'ad to get you out first."

"I'm fine, an' I'm going after them so…" Connor backed down the stairs. "…you can come with me or you can stay here, but I'm gonna find 'em." He smirked. "Sam's a bit rubbish in an anomaly without me, you know."

Cutter shook his head and sighed. "Alright, look. You and Abby? You're goin' back up. I've called Lester an' backup should be here any minute."

"No. No way." Connor backed down another step. "I'm going."

"No, you're not," Becker said firmly. He made a grab for Connor's arm and tugged him back up the stairs, giving him a shove toward Abby. "You're staying here. I'm going after them. Abby, keep hold of him."

"No problem. Come on, Connor." Abby pulled him up the stairs with her.

Cutter listened to them argue and gave Becker a firm look. "We'll go together. You're no' goin' in there alone." He glanced back up the stairs at the sound of new voices and smiled. "Lester's men are here. Come on."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Sam groaned softly and looked down from his perch in the massive tree he'd somehow managed to climb. He still wasn't sure how he'd climbed twenty feet up with only one good arm. Sam turned his wavering gaze back to the ground and tried to catch his breath. The air was so thick and heavy, he had trouble getting a decent breath. It made his chest hurt as he watched the vampire raptor pace around the base of the tree and look up at him again. His biggest fear just then wasn't actually being eaten…it was surviving the damn creature only to be trapped in the distant past if he didn't get back to the anomaly before it closed.

"Really wi…wish you'd find someone…someone else to eat," Sam gasped and let his head drop back against the tree as the world seemed to spin around him. He'd let his arm bleed freely longer than he should have in order to make sure that Dean could follow him and that the raptor would choose to track him rather than the others. He grimaced at himself and his not-so-well-thought-out plan to lead the creature back into the anomaly and circle back out again. He'd stepped through the ball of light and nearly into the waiting jaws of another raptor. Sam smirked remembering his moment of relief when he'd realized it was just a normal raptor. He given it a good slash in the neck with his machete and taken off at a run with it following.

Sam had heard the vampire raptor attack the other and, in danger of passing out where he stood, had climbed the nearest tree to get out of the thing's reach before it finished its meal. "Dammit," he whispered and rechecked the makeshift bandage on his left arm. He'd left his jacket down there somewhere, and his flannel would never be the same. Even just in his t-shirt, he was covered in sweat from the oppressive heat. The vampire raptor snarled below him again, and Sam heard it crash off into the trees. It did that periodically, running out of sight as though hoping Sam would think it was gone and come down. He snorted.

"Not…not fallin' for it…asshole." Sam panted for air and focused his attention instead on not passing out again. He could hear the raptor crashing through the underbrush again and heard its growl fill the air as it no doubt found some other poor animal to suck dry. He drifted in and out of consciousness as the fight waged on somewhere nearby and then all fell silent. The blood loss was finally taking its toll. He knew he should open his eyes, should check to see if maybe he had a clear run to the anomaly, but he simply couldn't convince his body to move. Even his eyes felt too heavy to lift as he struggled for every breath. Sam wished his brother was there. He wanted Dean so badly at the moment he actually fooled himself into thinking he heard Dean's voice calling his name.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Professor Cutter took a moment to watch the shifting lights of the anomaly and hitched the pack higher on his back. He'd grabbed a first aid kit, bottles of water, and then Becker had shoved a couple extra sidearms and ammo clips for them against Nick's protests. "No killin' the natives unless ye' 'ave too, Captain."

Becker smirked and checked that the safety was off his tranquilizer rifle. "No promises, professor. My job's to keep you lot alive, not the beasties." He had the crossbow slung over his shoulder, but it had already proved its uselessness without the right sort of dead blood.

Cutter nodded silently and strode into the anomaly. It didn't give him the thrill it usually did this time as he followed the disturbing trail of Sam's blood. It had led them unerringly to the anomaly through the maze of halls and he felt a bit of awe for a man strong enough and brave enough to do that just to save their lives. "Bloody 'ell," he gasped as they emerged on the other side and the heat instantly struck them. He went to one of the trees and brushed his hand over the leaf of a giant fern. "Cretaceous era rainforest." He frowned. "This heat isn'ae gonna help Sam's blood loss."

"Why's it so hard to breathe?" Becker asked softly as he stepped along the trail of Sam's blood and his eyes scanned around the trees for danger.

"Too much oxygen." Cutter walked at his back trying to take it all in at once. "The air we breathe at 'ome is only about 21 percent oxygen. This is a lot 'igher than that. This period in earth's development, yeah…not good for us weak li'tle humans."

Becker snorted. "I'll show 'em weak." He jerked his head up at the sound of a fight somewhere nearby and his gut told him it was Dean. "This way."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Dean shoved through a dense screen of ferns, staggered out into a clearing, and gasped to find the vampire raptor staring at him from feet away. "Crap!" He threw himself backward into the ferns as the raptor, just as surprised as he was, kicked one of its legs and Dean felt that lethal, curved talon slice through his right thigh as he went down. Dean dropped through the concealing fronds of the fern and rolled to his feet, ignoring the burning pain in his leg. He swung the crossbow up as the raptor's head broke through beside him. It opened its jaws wide in a snarl and the second row of vampire teeth descended into view.

"Eat this!" Dean fired the bolt into the raptor's chest. He grinned when it jerked and hissed angrily. Its body stumbled through the ferns after him, but it was clearly feeling the effect of the dead raptor blood. Dean backed away and pulled out another bolt, loading it into the crossbow while the creature staggered after him. He shot it again, this time in the rump and watched its powerful legs give out as the raptor thumped into the soft ground cover with a wheezing growl.

Dean waited a few moments to make sure it was incapacitated and then circled around it, fighting down the overwhelming instinct, honed by a lifetime of training and hunting, to kill it outright and remove the threat. But he understood this was different and would try to comply with the ARC team's practices. "Sam?" He shouted and picked up his brother's blood trail again. "Sam!" It was still a risk yelling without knowing how many more creatures were around them, but he was out of patience. He walked swiftly along following the blood drops and then stopped in confusion at the base of a tree. "What the…" Dean looked up and startled in surprise. His little brother was propped twenty feet up in a nest of limbs. He smiled and shook his head. "Nice one, Sam. Sam!" His brother didn't do more than twitch, and the fear that had fled for just a moment came thundering back. Dean slung the crossbow over his shoulder and went to climb the tree when his thigh painfully reminded him he himself was injured.

"Crap!" Dean staggered and leaned against the tree to get a look at the injury. The raptor's claw had opened a gash several inches long in a diagonal down his right thigh, and it was bleeding sluggishly. "Do not have time for this." Dean gritted his teeth and unbuckled his belt. He pulled it from the loops and wrapped it around his upper thigh. He grunted in pain as he tightened it and then blew out a heavy breath. "Son of a bitch. Ok."

"Sam? Dammit." Dean got a grip on the tree trunk and forced his leg to cooperate as he climbed and pulled himself up to a branch just below his brother. He managed to stand on his good leg and reached up. He slapped Sam's hip and quickly grabbed hold of his arm when Sam jerked in shock and nearly fell off his none-too-secure perch. "Whoa! Sam!"

"Dean?" Sam's heart thundered in his ears and he looked around and down to find his big brother staring up at him. "Wha…how?"

"You get down?" Dean asked him. He wanted him out of the tree before anything else so he could see just how bad off Sam was. "Come on, dude. Climb down. Down's easier than up."

"Down." Sam nodded in a fog and swung his leg around. "Right…right. I can…I can do this." He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs, and then slid slowly off the tangle of limbs. He cussed softly when he lost his grip and dropped the last five or six feet to the ground in a rush and went to his knees.

"Graceful," Dean chuckled wearily and got himself out of the tree, landing just as well as his brother had before he eased down next to him. "How bad's it?" Dean took hold of Sam's left arm and pulled him back to lean against the tree.

Sam's eyes widened when he saw the red ruin of Dean's right pant leg above his knee and the belt tied there. "Holy crap, Dean!" He tried to reach to see how badly Dean was hurt, but his brother grabbed his hands and stopped him.

"I'm good. I haven't been bleeding a trail of damn breadcrumbs for an hour." Dean frowned at how easily Sam gave up and thumped back into the tree, a testament to just how weak he was with blood loss, the heat, and how thick the damn air was. Dean was feeling it too.

Sam had to close his eyes. The constant wavering of his vision was putting him in serious danger of throwing up. "Dean, there's something…I don't feel right."

Dean unwrapped Sam's makeshift bandage enough to get a look at the vicious bite marks under it and shook his head. He couldn't take care of it there. He looked up at Sam's pale face worriedly. "What do you mean?"

"Can't, um…can't see straight…dizzy and…really hard to breathe, an' m'dizzy." Sam scowled, knowing there was something wrong with what he'd just said but unable to figure out what.

"Ok. Don't worry about it. I'm gettin' you home," Dean reassured him, but he was anything but calm. Sam just sounded wrong. "Come on. Let's get you back up. Sam." Dean tapped his brother's arm until Sam's blue-green eyes blinked open in a daze.

"Yeah, sorry. Ok." Sam let his brother pull his good arm over his shoulders and tried to get up under his own power. He knew Dean was shining him on about how badly his leg was wounded. "How…how far from th'nomaly are we?"

"Not far. Just hold on, Sammy." Dean pulled him into a slow walk. Keeping Sam's rubbery legs under him while his own wound protested wasn't easy through the dense forest, and every rustle in the foliage around them or animal call made him tense and wait breathlessly for some new horror to leap out at them. Sam's movements were becoming progressively more sluggish, and Dean grunted in surprise when his little brother suddenly went limp and slid to the ground. "Whoa! Sammy?"

Dean eased him down as gently as he could and put his hands to Sam's face, watching his eyes flutter. "Come on, buddy. Talk to me. Sam!"

"Dean?"

"Over here!" Dean shouted and sagged with relief at the sound of Becker's voice. "Hurry up! Sam's in trouble!" He listened and it didn't surprise him when he heard Professor Cutter as well and then both men jogged into view.

"What's happened?" Cutter dropped next to them, taking in the blood on both men and Sam's incredibly pale face.

"He's been having trouble breathing." Dean shook his head. "Me too, but not like this. He's just…Sam?" Dean tightened his grip on his brother's head as Sam's body began to jerk spastically on the ground and his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Oxygen toxicity! He's seizing!" Cutter put a hand to Sam's neck over his thundering pulse and looked to Becker. "We've got to get 'im out of here now. Dean," He put a hand on the older brother's shoulder. "The oxygen's too rich here. The longer we stay, the worse it'll get, and Sam's been 'ere longer than any of us. Let us help."

Dean nodded and forced himself to let go of Sam as Becker and Cutter each took an arm and pulled Sam's thrashing body up between them. "He'll be alright…right? Professor?"

"He'll be fine." Cutter gave Dean a wan smile and met Becker's concerned gaze as they started to move. "Hurry, Becker."

"Dean, mate." Becker groaned as he worked to hold Sam's weight up. "You've got to stop feeding him or something."

Dean smiled for him, appreciating the attempt at humor, but all he could see was his little brother's body weakening between the two men as he limped along behind. "Hold on, Sam. Don't you quit on me."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

"Can't believe we just let them go without us," Connor groaned as he and Abby leaned against the wall in the cannery. ARC guards were stationed around the facility and searching to make sure there weren't any more predators on the loose, but the place was huge and riddled with places for things to hide. "We should be down there."

"Becker and Cutter'll find 'em, Connor." Abby assured him and blew her blonde hair out of her eyes. She was just as worried and itched to be through the anomaly herself.

"Sam was hurt." Connor looked over at the stairs down to the sub-basement and felt guilt worm through him. "He got hurt protectin' us, Abs, and I just…I can't." Connor turned and strode toward the stairs. "I'm no' leavin' him down there."

"Connor!" Abby ran after him and grabbed his arm. "You don't even know where they are. Stop!" She gave his arm a pull and gasped in shock as a raptor appeared on the stairs suddenly. "Oh, God…Connor?"

"Back up, Abby," Connor whispered and moved to put himself between her and the creature. He shook with fear when the raptor opened its mouth to show the second set of vampire teeth as they slid into view, but he held his ground. "Get the soldiers." He reached behind him and gave her a shove away. "Hurry, Abby!"

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter 4_ **

Connor wondered when it was that he'd gone insane as he stood and played bait for a vampire velociraptor. Abby shouted somewhere behind him, and he watched the raptor's head swing to see her over his shoulder. "No you don't, mate," Connor said softly in sudden anger. He swung out and punched the creature in the side of the head then backed away as it hissed and loomed over him. He gave a nervous laugh. "Guess that got your attention, eh? Connor, you're an idiot. Abby!" He moved slowly back with the raptor matching him step for step and figured he would be dying soon. He saw the raptor duck its head, watched the muscles in its shoulders bunch, and knew his time was up. "Not good." Connor turned and ran.

The raptor leaped at his back and rode him down to the floor. It screamed angrily as men converged on it and sharp, tranquilizer darts pierced its tough hide, but it ignored them. It lowered its head to the man under it and the scent of blood with its jaws opened wide while another voice screamed nearby.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_ **

Dean staggered back through the anomaly and only concern for his brother kept him on his feet. "Sam?"

"Still out." Cutter glanced at the dark head hanging between Sam's shoulders and Becker's worried gaze over top of him. "Let's get 'im upstairs. The anomaly'll be pourin' oxygen down here. We need to get 'im away from it…let 'is lungs readjust."

Dean used the wall to stay on his feet as they followed Sam's now dried trail of blood back through the maze of the sub-basement. He smirked when he saw that he was leaving his own fresh trail, drops of his blood dripping behind his wounded leg as they walked. "How come…every time we see you guys…we end up bleeding all over history?"

Professor Cutter chuckled softly and spared a look back at Dean. "Just lucky." He didn't like how pale Dean appeared to be or the way it was clear the wall was the only thing keeping him on his feet. "Maybe you should sit down."

Dean shook his head. "I'm good. Keep going." He jerked his head up at the sound of gunfire and shouting from above as they neared the stairs. "Son of a bitch. Wait." A sudden jolt of adrenaline raced through him, cranking up his alertness to Code Red and returning a sense of strength to his unsteady legs. He pulled his crossbow off his shoulder. "Cutter, stay here with Sam. Becker?"

"Yeah." Becker was already helping to lower the taller man to the floor against the wall. He pulled up his crossbow. "They've got another one."

"Here." Dean pulled the flask from his pocket and took off the cap. "Arrows. Got some dead raptor blood." He hastily poured some of the heads of Becker's arrows, letting it ooze thickly onto them.

"That's Abby!" Becker spun and went up the stairs at a run with Dean on his heels as Connor's name echoed down the stairs with Abby's voice.

Dean forced his bad leg to stay under him as they pounded up the narrow stairs and took only a moment to register what was happening as they reached the top. Connor was on the ground with a raptor on his back. ARC guards were uselessly shooting tranquilizer darts at the thing and Abby looked horrified beyond them.

"HEY!" Dean bellowed. He smiled grimly as the raptor's head swung around to snarl at him and fired a bolt into the side of its neck. He saw Becker's pierce into the creature's backside. The dinosaur roared as it threw its head back and fell to the side, away from Connor. "No!" Dean yelled and waved a hand at Abby as she lurched toward Connor and the still snarling jaws of the beast. "Stay back!" He quickly loaded another bolt into his crossbow and loosed it into the raptor's unprotected belly. "Move it away from Connor."

"Got it." Becker went around the beast's other side and waved over a couple of his guards to help.

Abby vibrated with need until finally it was far enough away and she slid to the floor next to Connor. "Connor?" She whispered and brushed a hand through his hair. "Talk to me, Connor. Please?"

Dean went back to the stairs and made his way back down the stairs slowly. "Cutter?"

"What's happened?" Cutter took Dean's arm as the man reached the bottom.

"Connor's hurt," Dean told him bluntly. "Don't know how bad." He waved a hand at the stairs. "Go on. I got Sam."

Cutter shook his head and wondered just how alone the Winchesters were used to being; as if he'd just leave them wounded and alone. "Let's get 'im up."

"But Connor…"

"Will still be there in a couple minutes and has plenty of people helping him right now. You gonna stop arguin' and 'elp me here?" Cutter smiled and groaned as he pulled one of Sam's arms over his shoulders.

Dean shook his head and smiled, taking his brother's other arm. "Thanks, Cutter."

"I never leave my team behind, Dean." Cutter hefted Sam between them and grinned at Dean's surprised look.

"You're somethin' else, professor." Dean held onto his brother and, with the adrenaline rush subsiding as quickly as it had come, he had to put all his concentration on climbing the stairs and not letting his leg go out from under him with Sam's weight pulling at him. "You sure he's gonna be alright?" It worried him that Sam had been unconscious so long.

"Aye. Probably wake up anytime now. He'll be fi…oh, hell," Cutter breathed when they reached the top and he saw Connor.

Dean took all of Sam's weight from the professor and nodded. "Go on. We're good here." He wrapped his arms around Sam and leaned back against the wall next to the stairs. Dean slid slowly down the wall, careful of his leg and his brother and, with a little shifting, got them settled with Sam leaning against him. "Time to wake up, little brother," Dean told him quietly while he watched the flurry of activity around the fallen Connor.

"Is he alive?" Cutter knelt next to Abby and put a hand to the back of Connor's neck.

"'Course I'm alive," Connor's voice was soft and pain-filled.

Cutter grinned and rocked back on his heels, dizzy with relief. "There are better ways to get a day off, Connor." The back of Connor's shirt was shredded and blood-soaked as a paramedic took blunt scissors and started to cut it open.

"You know me," Connor groaned and tried not to twitch or crush Abby's hand. He held it tightly, needing the contact. "Always…skivvin' for a…a free day."

"Shut up, Connor," Abby told him as she smiled tearfully. "You're an idiot, you know that?" She pulled their clasped hands up to her chest and pressed her cheek against the back of his hand.

Connor smiled even as the medic touched his back and made him whimper. "But…but ye' love me, yeah?"

Abby nodded silently and kept hold of his hand while they pressed bandages into his back to stop the bleeding.

"'e'll be just fine, Abby. You'll see." Cutter gave her a sure smile. "Back to drivin' us mad in no time."

"Permission to wrap Connor in bubble wrap in the field from now on?" Becker asked facetiously, pleased to see Connor turn a wan smile up to him from the floor.

"Aye. Granted." Cutter laughed. "Might wanna add Sam to the bubble wrap list. Those two seem to be kindred trouble magnets. Speakin' of…" he trailed off and sighed when he saw a medic trying to pull the younger brother from the elder and the stubborn look on Dean's face. "I think Dean might be avin' a bit of a problem." He rose and left Becker to keep Abby and Connor company and went over to the boys, kneeling down across from the medic. "Dean, lad. Ye've got to let them 'elp Sam now."

Dean looked wearily up at Cutter and frowned. He realized suddenly that he wasn't exactly awake anymore. He'd felt something trying to pull Sam from him and tightened his grip reflexively. "Cutter?"

"That's it, son." Cutter pried Dean's hand from Sam's shoulders and nodded to the medic to take him. "We'll keep ye' with 'im, I promise. Come on now. Need a bit o' seein' to yourself."

"Crap," Dean groaned and let Sam be pulled away. He ran a shaking hand through his hair and tried to focus. "Connor?"

"Aye, he's fine." Cutter smiled and patted Dean's shoulder. He waved his other hand as more paramedics from the ARC rushed in with multiple stretchers, attracting them over. "We'll have you boys patched up in no time."

The next few minutes were a blur for Dean. He knew in a detached way he'd lost enough blood to leave him near unconscious, and he let them manhandle him onto a stretcher without argument, seeing Sam carried out ahead of him. Knowing his brother was safe and in good hands, he finally gave in to the exhaustion and closed his eyes.

When Dean opened his eyes again, it was to the soft glow of white lights, the steady beep of a heart monitor and Abby's smile. "Could get used to wakin' up like this." Dean said hoarsely and grinned when she laughed.

"Here." Abby picked up a glass of water from the table beside the bed and handed it to him. "Your brother and the idiot are fine as well." She rolled her eyes. "They're in the next room comparin' brain size again or something."

Dean chuckled and pushed himself up in the bed so he was sitting. "We at the ARC?" Abby nodded and he looked down at his leg. They'd put him in a surgical gown and there was a thick bandage wrapped around his thigh. "You sure Sam's alright?"

"He's fine, Dean." Abby smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "He woke up on the way back to the ARC, and, according to the medics, started raising hell in the back of the ambulance until they managed to convince him you were alive and well."

Dean chuckled. "That's my boy. Ok." He swung his legs off the side of the bed.

"Oi! Where do you think you're going?" Abby said in exasperation as he stood and swayed and she grabbed his arm to steady him.

"Find my brother," Dean told her as though that should be obvious. He was grateful that they hadn't given him one of those gowns that was open in the back, and he limped to the door of his room. He needed to see for himself that Sam was alright since his last sight of him had been of Sam unconscious for too long after having a seizure. He wouldn't feel better until he saw him, and Dean stepped out into the hall. "Which way?"

Abby rolled her eyes and laughed. "That way." She pointed to the left and stayed next to him as he walked unsteadily down the hall to the next door.

Dean pushed open the door and smiled in relief. Sam was sitting propped up in a bed with Connor in another bed beside him, talking animatedly. There was a bandage wrapped around his brother's head and another around his left arm that was held in a sling against his chest. "You givin' the nurses crap, Sammy?"

Sam smiled and watched his brother limp over to his bed and lean on the end. "That's your job, jerk. How's your leg?"

"Better than your arm. How bad is it?" Dean eased a hip onto his brother's bed and plucked at the sling holding his arm.

"'least neither of you got your back fileted open." Connor said and gave a dramatic groan as Abby walked over to his bed.

"Oh, stop whining. You're fine." Abby rolled her eyes at him fondly and bounced up to sit on his bed, grinning when the bed's movement made him gasp with discomfort. "Sam's arm's broken."

"Hairline fracture," Sam corrected quickly when he saw Dean's eyes narrow. "It's nothing. Seriously. Didn't even put a cast on me."

Dean took a close look and decided it looked good enough for now. He looked up and studied Sam's still pale face. "You alright otherwise?"

"Lost a couple pints from this," Sam said ruefully and held his arm up slightly. "The doctors said I should be fine."

"Actually, they said he'll be more tired than normal for a few days because of the oxygen toxicity and blood loss." Abby grinned at Sam's disgusted roll of eyes. "They also said for him to take it easy and not do too much until his arm heals."

"Thank you, Abby," Sam sighed and slapped his brother's shoulder. "Get that look off your face. I'm fine. Connor's fine."

"And hopefully there aren't any more raptovamps out there." Dean sat back and stretched his leg out.

"There shouldn'a be," Professor Cutter said as he walked into the room. He'd found Dean's empty and figured he knew where to find him. "The anomaly's still open, but we've guards watchin' it now armed with your dead raptor blood. How is everyone? Connor?"

"Ready to get back to work." Connor sat up straighter. "I've still got to figure out that electrical frequency to close anomalies and the detector needs a bit of fine tuning and…"

"…and you'll be doin' none o' tha' 'til the doctor says your back's in one piece again." Cutter said firmly and stared him down.

Sam chuckled and let his head fall back. "S'worse than you," he said sleepily.

"Sammy?" Dean took his shoulder as Sam's head rolled slowly to the side. "This is normal, right?"

"Yeah, mate." Connor nodded and waved a hand. "He's done that at least a half dozen times while we were talkin'."

Dean watched his brother sleep and tried to relax. It had been a harrowing day. He scrubbed a hand down his face. "Can't believe we just got here…" he looked down at his watch and shook his head. "Hasn't even been a day yet. Damn."

"You should go back to your room and get some sleep." Abby told Dean and wasn't surprised when he shook his head. The last time they'd been guests of the ARC, Sam had been injured and Dean had stayed at his bedside virtually the entire time.

"I'm good here." Dean stood and turned, lowering himself gingerly down into the chair next to the bed. He swung his leg up onto the side of Sam's bed and crossed his arms behind his head. "Yep. Comfy."

Professor Cutter chuckled. "'Ave it your way. I'll just bring up somethin' to eat then, shall I?"

"Meat pies?" Dean asked and grinned with Connor and Abby laughing.

"I was thinkin' more along the lines of chicken soup." Cutter shook his head and smiled. "But I'll see what I can do. Don't be givin' the medics a hard time if they come lookin' for ya."

Dean gave him his best innocent smile. "Who? Me?"

Cutter snorted and went to the door. "Pretty sure tha's how Eve ended up eatin' the bloody apple."

Dean laughed appreciatively and looked back at his brother while he slept. "Hey, Connor. You think you could find us a cruise back to the US and book it before Sam wakes up again?" He grinned. "I'm just thinkin' of Sam here. Probably shouldn't be flying after time travel and being wounded and…and stuff. Right? Like not swimming after you eat."

"Right, mate." Connor chuckled and met Abby's amused gaze. "Keep tellin' yourself that."

"Planes really are perfectly safe, Dean. You know that?" Abby smiled fondly at him while he shook his head at her.

"You try sayin' that after you've been stuck at thirty-thousand feet with a pissed off demon controlling the plane with every intention of killing everyone on it." Dean raised a finger as if in victory while they both stared open-mouthed at him. "Uh huh! See? Bet you think twice about getting on a plane from now on." He nodded and settled back into his chair to watch over Sam and realized with a start that Sam's eyes were open and blinking lazily at him while his mouth turned up in a smirk. "What?"

Sam smiled and closed his eyes again. "Nothing, Dean."

"Shut up, Sammy."

"It's Sam, jerk, and I didn't say anything." Sam gave a soft laugh and let sleep take him again now that he knew his brother was alright and not going anywhere.

Dean snorted and ignored the fond looks on Connor and Abby's face. "Bitch."

"I's like watchin' you and your brother, Abs." Connor chuckled and groaned when Abby punched his arm lightly. He rubbed the spot and gave her his best puppy expression. "Oi, Abby! I'm wounded remember?" He blinked at her and stuck out his bottom lip. "Cut me back to ribbons, an' it hurts an' all."

"Aw, Connor. I'm sorry." Abby smiled and rubbed his arm, tilting her head to look at him and well aware that he was working up to asking for something.

"It's alright." Connor nodded and gave a small, theatrical moan. "Maybe you could…bring me some tea?" He looked at her pretty eyes and smiled again. "Maybe a little toast? Some beans and…"

"Connor, you're diggin' for China, man." Dean laughed and easily read the expression on Abby's face. He'd seen it often enough on Sam's when he tried to milk an injury for pie.

"No idea what you're talkin' about, mate." Connor batted his lashes at Abby and waited expectantly.

"Right." Abby nodded and then leaned in to wrap him in a hug, making sure she crossed her arms just over the bandages on his back and hurt him…just a little. "Oh, my poor, Connor! Of course!"

"Abby! Watch it!" Connor gasped, both eager to get her off and stop hurting his back and never wanting her to let go. "Sorry! Sorry! No toast!"

Abby laughed along with Dean and let him go. "You'll get tea, and only because I was gettin' it anyway for Dean and Sam. Now shu' up and go to sleep, idiot."

"No respect for a wounded man," Connor grumbled as Abby left but he was smiling as he turned on his side to get off his back. "She likes me."

Dean nodded. "She's as stupid for you as you are for her, dude." He chuckled and settled back yet again to try and get some sleep. "Vampire raptors." He shook his head. "Only in England."

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_The End._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, you've all had fun for this little crossover ride and I've done the characters justice and if I'm REALLY lucky…inspired a few of you to go find the original Primeval UK for a watch. :D Promise. You'll love it.


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